1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with medical action systems designed specifically for patients suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, sinusitis and diabetes, in order to provide comprehensive symptom and medical advice information in a compact, easy-to-use format. More particularly the invention relates to such medical action systems made up of a plurality of interconnected, imprinted, color-coded cards which include symptom description/medical action cards of different colors respectively allowing the user to readily determine the severity of symptoms and recommended treatments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Patients afflicted with chronic diseases commonly experience symptoms of varying severity. For example, asthma patients may have for extended periods only normal symptoms not requiring any special treatment steps. From time to time however, considerably more severe and even life-threatening symptoms can be present. It may be difficult in such cases for the patient to promptly recognize the problem and its potential severity, and to understand what types of treatment or care should be undertaken. This is particularly true in cases of children suffering from asthma, who may lack sufficient articulation to explain their symptoms. These problems of course exist in varying degrees with other chronic diseases.
The type of symptom-recognition and treatment information required for chronically ill patients does exist for most diseases. However, this information is widely dispersed in printed publications not realistically available to patients, or perhaps is comprehensively known only to medical professionals.
There is accordingly a real and unsatisfied need for a medical action system which provides symptom-recognition and treatment information for chronic diseases in a compact, easily usable format which can be understood and applied by patients.